Related Stories

Local mayors are frustrated and disappointed after a long-planned meeting with provincial officials over the hauling of hazardous goods on Highway 401 failed to yield concrete action.

Prescott Mayor Brett Todd, who organized the meeting, said the provincial representatives had no answers for the mayors, despite the fact the meeting had been arranged six months ago.

“It was quite disappointing today,” Todd said following Monday’s meeting. “There was a fair bit of anger and frustration in the room.”

Todd arranged the meeting last April in the aftermath of the chemical spill on the 401 that killed one person, sent 29 people including first responders to hospital, led to a 30-car pileup and closed the highway for 30 hours.

Leeds and Grenville mayors demanded that something be done about hazardous-material trucks on the 401 during storms. Some proposed the trucks be taken off the highway during storms; others advocated lower speed limits for trucks during bad weather.

But despite having a chance to look at the mayors’ ideas for six months, the officials had no answers, Todd said.

Todd added the meeting – which saw the provincial contingent bring about 30 ministry and regional officials and the Ontario Provincial Police to the table – was a useful information session but the mayors had hoped for more.

Basically, the issue is still at step one, he said.

“We’ve got a long way to go and here it is mid-September and we’re going to have snow before you know it,” he said.

Part of the problem with the meeting was that the provincial government had no political representation at the table, Todd said. Transport Minister Steven Del Duca cancelled out of the meeting last week, saying he had to attend the International Plowing Match instead.

On the municipal side of the table, there were most Leeds and Grenville mayors and the heads of the Eastern Ontario mayors’ and wardens’ caucuses, representing about 1.1 million people in Eastern Ontario, Todd said.

Todd added Del Duca promised that he would meet the mayors privately at a later time, and Todd said they will take him up on that offer.

“This is not going away; this is not over with,” Todd said. “We need to work on this until we see some positive changes.”

He said the other mayors indicated a “strong willingness” to go to Toronto and meet with Del Duca.

“We’re trying to work at this as a dialogue but we want to see some real action,” he said.

Todd said that Monday’s information meeting would have been okay back in April or May, soon after the 401 crash, but to have the meeting six months later was disappointing.

Todd said it was good to have representatives from the Ontario Trucking Association to give their perspective on the problem.

Local mayors have emphasized that it is not only hazardous trucks on the 401 during storms that worries them. When the 401 is closed during bad weather, the trucks are rerouted down County Road 2, bringing them straight through such communities as Prescott, Brockville and Gananoque, they said.